Anyone else excited about this march rain? Only every couple of years do we get a March rain where we hunt in South Texas. Its the magic month to have a strong green up for us and great antlers in fall! Just hope we do not get a late freeze.

It takes winter rains for post rut buck to have antler growth hit its peak aslo. We have had both now with this March rain and so far we are set up for a good antler year. It will just take our average rains in April thru August for it to be a banner.

Im excited about the rains we've seen in Shackelford County, its been 2010 since we've seen anything resembling this. I always hope for rains just for the health of the herd and the ecosystem in general out there. That said, I have noticed in the 15 years I've hunted south of Albany that wet conditions don't necessarily mean larger antlers for us. I assume its because the protein consumption literally gets cut in half and maybe more in wet years. I thought I was imagining this until I read the same thing on another board from some very reputable posters. But I will gladly give up inches of horn for good range conditions!

Im excited about the rains we've seen in Shackelford County, its been 2010 since we've seen anything resembling this. I always hope for rains just for the health of the herd and the ecosystem in general out there. That said, I have noticed in the 15 years I've hunted south of Albany that wet conditions don't necessarily mean larger antlers for us. I assume its because the protein consumption literally gets cut in half and maybe more in wet years. I thought I was imagining this until I read the same thing on another board from some very reputable posters. But I will gladly give up inches of horn for good range conditions!

Im excited about the rains we've seen in Shackelford County, its been 2010 since we've seen anything resembling this. I always hope for rains just for the health of the herd and the ecosystem in general out there. That said, I have noticed in the 15 years I've hunted south of Albany that wet conditions don't necessarily mean larger antlers for us. I assume its because the protein consumption literally gets cut in half and maybe more in wet years. I thought I was imagining this until I read the same thing on another board from some very reputable posters. But I will gladly give up inches of horn for good range conditions!

Anyone want to elaborate on this? I'd like to hear more.

IME it was from poor habitat. I managed a ranch in the Hill Country that had been root plowed and then grazed very hard for 30+ years till it changed hands with a new owner. We started to take deer numbers off and feeding free choice 20% protein year round in 1990. We had some decent browse in areas and some forb growth in some areas. The deer got on feed quickly the first year. There was a few bucks in the 3-4 yr old age class but I did not see one 10 point the first year in 1989. I did see 4-10 points the first year on feed. The deer continued to get better with age and the increased nutrition. The top end deer increased every year. 1992 was a very wet year (way above average) then after that the rainfall steadily decreased and was below average every year from 1993 until 1997. I always believed that the deer were better in years when it was below average due to age and protein. The quality of browse was not the greatest even still and the forb production was mainly in spring only. So by late May till fall the deer had nothing of high quality to eat other than the protein. They had low end browse mostly that was very low in protein. Late Summer and Fall brought on mast crops which were low in protein but high in amounts of it with persimmon and oak. The drought period from Oct 1995 till Aug 1996 only had 6" of rain but that year the ranch produced bucks up into the 180 class with native genetics to that county. The over all herd had improved in body size also. Doe weights were up 40% from when we started. I think that the deer had enough browse, forbes and mast crops to live on but not do them enough nutritional wise to see the true genetic potential without the protein supplement. The average of most of the browse plants were well below 16% protein content. The forb production was not much better and it was only for a short window during the spring.